Re: [tlug] Coarse Debugging of USB devices that misbehave underLinux, but behave OK under Windows

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:43:37 +0900 Dave Gutteridge <dave@example.com> wrote:

> > It's _likely_ that the hardware is OK, but it is not _certain_. 
> > ...
> > That things work flawlessly in Windows does not mean that the 
> > hardware is in perfect working order 
> 
> I've experimented with removing my USB hub from the chain of
> connections, and plugging items directly to the computer, one at a time.
> Nothing I do changes the behaviour. Or to put it another way, nothing I
> do with trying to alter the hardware connections has any positive effect
> in Linux.

Thanks. 

> Further, whichever way I connect the devices to the computer works in
> Windows. Again, in other terms, changing the device connections has no
> negative impact in Windows.

Thanks. 

> I remain convinced that this is a Linux settings issue, and that the
> hardware itself is fine.
> 
> What can I do to diagnose the drivers in Linux?

Considering that many (if not all) of the USB devices 
were not behaving well, one would think that something 
common to all the devices was at issue. 

As someone else mentioned, it could be the USB chip on the 
motherboard that causes the problem. The Linux driver could 
have a bug, or more likely, reveals/provokes a bug in the 
hardware. Either way, detailed debugging drivers is probably far over 
your head (and mine!), and if it could be fixed it probably 
would be fixed already by now. So we're stuck with coarse 
debugging. Thanks for doing the experiments which were the 
first steps. 

Someone else suggested adding a PCI to USB card that uses 
a non-problematic chipset. That sounds like a good thing to try. 
Also, try a different version of Linux. Considering how much 
effort it is to install a different version of Linux, just 
for an experiment, try some live-CD Linuxes, such as Knoppix or 
MediaInLinux http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=medialinux